The 'Great' Story

What do great people and great achievements forsake in their endeavor to become great and successful is of little concern to the kind of world which only showcases and highlights the jazz and the blitz, the pomp and show, the crazy and the funny. In the journey of achieving greatness, the definition of which remains subjective and at a lot of times, controversial, a lot of beings, human or not, rather humane or not leave behind a plethora of opportunities where they could have been even greater. Of course, this only by a certain perspective. They leave behind chances of making a difference to those lives which direly require a difference. They leave behind the chance of holding a child’s hand and helping him walk who only crawls today with his polio-hit limbs. They leave behind the chance of handing over a 10 rupee note to an old Baba who could have blessed them with immense holy wishes. They leave behind the chance to see the starry yet tear filled smile of a young girl who could have not died of thirst, only if they had bought her a bottle of water in that scorching Indian summer.

However, we must not digress. This is the story of the great. Not of greatness. This is the story of the mighty. And not the might. Moreover why only people? Talk of the cities. Cities which we call the grand Metros. The marketing people build strategies for these places. They are the talk and the preference of the elite. These are the places where international brands are launched and humungous malls are built. Each and every company has these places in their vision. These are great cities. Huge and populous. Rich and powerful. Concrete and blood. Concrete, of the ones who live in beautiful apartments. Blood, of those who dwell in slums and sleep on pavements.
Only last night while heading home after dinner. I ran into two kids of around 10 years each sitting on the pavement along one of the most happening roads of Mumbai, Bandra-Khar linking road. The expressions on their faces hit me with a pang of guilt and sorrow. I felt I was being led into depression with their depressed, remorseful and hopeless sight. They didn’t deserve the expression they had in their eyes at such a young age. They didn’t deserve to be homeless or be sitting on the pavement. They didn’t deserve to have such a childhood. I only look back and crib about the nothingness of my childhood. They unknowingly gave me all the reasons to be grateful about it now. Those kids, I don’t know have parents or not. Those kids, I don’t know have eaten or not. Those kids, I hope, are at least a pair. That’s my only consolation. They’re two. Thank God. And then there is God. We all have anyway left it upon him to take action.

What can we do? It’s not even the question. Do we even feel enough to try? The city as great as Mumabi can not treat its children in this manner. If it does, it is not great. If it tries, it might become great with the virtue of not filth and show but of true greatness which only lies in being human, which only persists if you follow your heart instincts, which only develops if you stop a moment, think and act.

The greatness lies in your account of not money or gold, but of how many smiles can you account for, how many blessings can you bank upon, how many wishes have come out only for you. Luck happens, not by luck, but these little deeds which make world of a difference in a lot of lives. Someone may just remember you forever for smiling at him or her when he needed a conforming smile. Someone may owe you his or her life for saving them with food or water when they were starving. Someone might be praying for your health and well being for anything nice that you might have done for them.

You might not remember you own little good deeds. But you’ll certainly never regret them. They might not do any good to you. But they will certainly not do any harm. They might not pen you down in history. But they will certainly not let you fade in someone’s memory.

This might matter to you. If it does, you’re already quite great. If it doesn’t, you can attempt greatness.

Catfight

At every step of my life, I've noticed competition and envy. Competition to get a husband, competition to please a husband, competition to have a child, competition that your child does well. If the life of an average Indian woman was at all defined, by one word, the word would be competition. Competition in different contexts and a range of them in the same context. Birth to education to beauty to career to wedding to children to houses to cars to diamonds to estates to world trips to social dinners to.. the list in in-exhaustive.
Imagine for once if we, women could do away with all this competition for one whole day, wouldn't that be something like going to a spa and getting all the toxins out of our system? How refreshing would that be? How loving? By God's grace, it would be like little drops of scented rain falling upon us...like not drops of rain..but as if peace had fission-ed into zillions of particles and is now being endowed upon us... like it was .. on the prophets..only for a day..! Just the thought of it makes my body chill...and makes my heart melt..... the beauty of it..the sanctity of it...the feel of being christened once again...as if it were the holy waters......! So much could getting wet in rain do to our minds..and our hearts...! Only if we were to imagine it the right way....percieve it in our context! Imagination is easy and free of cost but can entirely change one's perception and importance of things. Cheap thrills do have their stand in our lives!